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RESTRICTED
14 December 1971
K C Price Esq
CRE 2
Department of Trade and Industry
1 Victoria Street
London SW1
15
As you will have noticed while you were in Hong Kong the reaction to the United Kingdom's decision to impose both tariff and quotas on Hong Kong cotton textiles from the new year was received locally more in sorrow than in anger. Official reactions, for instance in the Governor's speech at the opening of the C.M.A. Exhibition and in the Hong Kong Government Information Service's handouts, were studiously moderate in tone and took the United Kingdom's views fairly fully into account.
Business reaction especially on the part of British Expatriates was less restrained and Gerry Salmon, chairman of the Hong Kong Government Chamber of Commerce, was probably only voicing the feelings of this sector of Hong Kong society in his statement to the press. I enclose a copy of the original press release along with copies of cuttings from the local papers relating to the same subject.
As you were told at the Commerce and Industry Department what seems to have narked the Hong Kong people most was (a) the fact that when the intention to impose tariffs was announced they were assured or so they say that quotas would be taken off and (b) this action has been taken without any warning.
They say they appreciate our reasons for this action which they believe is basically our wish to align ourselves with the Common Market before our entry, but they feel that the process of adptation could have been more gradual with some respect for Hong Kong's problems.
The United Kingdom Government's failure to take into account the special problems of Hong Kong is a recurrent theme in complaints of local people against Britain and although the more broadminded understand that we have our problems too, they sometimes feel, rightly or wrongly, that a little more tact and consideration would make a great deal of difference to local reactions.
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